Roads to the Future
by Chariflare
Summary: Mystery Dungeon Time/Darkness/Sky. Mostly a novelisation, but the other part of it is about the pasts of the characters.
1. Prologue: The 12th Road

Further story description – This is kind of a novelisation, but it's got its own AU backstory, a few extra events (maybe) and the characterisations are going to slightly differ because it's no fun having a story about a silent protagonist. Or at least it isn't fun for me.  
>Creative criticism (coughcoughreviewscough) is appreciated.<p>

**[NOTE AS OF 2014: THIS STORY IS NO LONGER BEING UPDATED. See my profile as for why. Please do not judge the rest of my writing or my current self on this story. This was, at its heart, a self-insert story I thought up when I was twelve and carried with me until I became the cynical weirdo I am today. Honestly, I want to delete it because of its personal nature, but there was at least _one _person who liked it, so I'll hold off - if you're _really _interested, I'll tell you the rest of plot. If I can remember it. But that's enough of my blabbering. Without further ado, I present you with a story which you should take with a grain of salt.]**

**- The 12****th**** Road -**

An expensive-looking woman with Rapunzel-like hair stands on the roof garden of an apartment building. She looks over the railing, eyes flicking between cars rushing by and the bridge between the luxurious inner-city apartments and the department store. Then she looks up at the sky. It seems so wide and empty to her. Too wide. Too empty. A powerful wind rustles the leaves in the trees.

_There are many paths..._

A young boy lies in one of the plain white rooms of a country hospital. The smell of soap, that stench which seems to infect all hospitals, lingers around his bed. Most people who visit the others in the room think he's sleeping. He is **not** asleep, however. But that doesn't mean he doesn't dream. He dreams all day...of a seemingly far-away time, although it was just before he came to the stark-white hospital on a distant hill a long way from his home.

_Many possible futures..._

A teenage girl runs through a forest. She has always been an athletic child; she loves the feeling of the cold wind rushing against her face, of the burning in her legs as she races to the finish line. Pushing a lock of her ash-blonde hair out of her face, she nears the scarlet paper ribbon she tied between the old oak tree and the rowan near the end of the orchard. She dashes through it and it breaks in two with a satisfying snapping sound. A grin breaks out on her freckled face. But then she sighs, ties the two pieces of ribbon back together and walks back to the start of her track, almost a kilometre away, at the back of the replica Gothic mansion in which she lives. She bolts off through the apple trees, rustling the fallen autumn leaves as she goes.

_Other people...the choices they make can change your future...Sometimes, only they are able to change it..._

The Rapunzel-like woman slowly paces towards the staircase. She stops, realising the absence of a weight on her nose. She reaches for her glasses with her left hand. Not finding them there, she grasps around with her right. When her fingers find nothing she realises she has left her handbag near the railing. The woman considers getting contact lenses for a moment. She decides against it; she loathes that sort of fuss. Going back, she picks up her classy emerald handbag, digs through it for her glasses, and begins cleaning them . The expensive-looking woman turns towards the staircase, but then she hesitates. She turns back and looks over at the cars again. She wonders if anyone would miss her if she fell. If anyone would realise she was gone.

_Their paths...your paths...all of them intersect and alter each other..._

An older man walks into a room in which a boy dreams. He looks quite like the child, with the black hair, although his is speckled with brown, the pointy nose, although his is a bit crooked, and the round face with the pointed chin, although he has a beard and a moustache. If the boy was the same age, they could be mistaken for being the same person. But the boy's eyes would give him away. The eyes of the man, they are grey. The eyes of the boy, a blue the same shade as the sky at midday.  
>The man walks towards a doctor clad in a coat the same colour as the walls.<p>

_Even if it seems as if you have no connection to them..._

The teenager feels the wind rushing against her face, the burning in her lungs as she nears the finish line. She thinks about the Olympics. Maybe, just maybe, she'll get to go there someday.

_...They have always been close to you, in one way or another. _

The woman takes a step backwards. She knows she shouldn't be thinking like that. Her boyfriend, her parents, they would care, they'd notice. Surely, a lot of people would notice... She is about the turn towards the staircase when the wind suddenly starts up again. Her glasses fall off her nose and she desperately tries to reach them.  
>She trips.<br>She falls over the railing, towards the cars below.

_Time..._

The man talks to the doctor. He says that they've decided. Decided that it's time to let him go. The doctor sighs, and slowly paces towards the boy.

_...Time._

The girl feels a burning in her lungs, feels them constricting in her chest, the world closing in around her. She collapses. Her asthma, she hasn't had an attack for a few years now, it's acting up again. She doesn't call out; she knows there's no-one there to help her. She's too far from the house.

..._Time, freeze._

All the people stop in their tracks.

A light voice echoes throughout the whole world. Despite the fact that nothing in that world gives any sign of life, the voice speaks as if people can hear her.

_...Do not be alarmed_..._You...have been given a chance to live. There is not enough time to explain, as__my powers are limited here...But you will live...if you save him._


	2. Chapter 1: Stormy Sea, Echoing Thunder

**Chapter I: "Stormy Seas and Echoing Thunder" **

A lone Pokemon stood on a hill. He didn't seem to notice the rain pouring down around him.  
>He didn't seem to notice anything at all.<br>For he wasn't watching the weather - he was watching something else.

He was watching the players in his game.

'_Man, I'm bored...'  
>Thunder crashed in the distance as raindrops began to patter softly around him.<br>'Why...why does it have to rain today? I'm boredboredboredboredBORED!'  
>Nobody answered. Not that he was expecting anyone to. He'd been living alone for a long time, and he wasn't going to pretend he had someone to turn to.<br>Sighing, he walked up to the gigantic hole in the wall that he called a window, and leaned out. He, having nothing better to do besides mope, began to watch the storm. As fat droplets of water ran down his cheeks, he realised his house was going to get drenched. The water that now fell down his neck, he didn't know if that water was rain or tears. It wouldn't have made a difference. He hated both.  
>Raindrops began to fall harder, and lightning lit up the sky...<em>

'_Whoa! Eeek!'  
>'Are you okay? Just a little bit longer...We're almost there...' The Pokemon paused for a moment, then quickly breathed in 'Hold on to my hand! Come on! Don't let go!'<em>

The Pokemon turned his head up, towards the clouds. "The first, shouting desperately into the night..."

'_N-no! I can't...hold on!'  
>'Don't...let...go...No!'<br>'Waaaaaah!'  
>'...No...'<em>

A smile crept across his face. "...The second, screaming as she falls into the darkness..."

'_...I'm scared...I...I hate thunder...'_

The lone Pokémon's eyes lit up, burning a hole in the darkness around him. "And the third, hiding from the terrors of the storm in his own home, yet still soaked in the freezing rain...It's the perfect setting...The thunder and lightning...Their glory illuminating the sky..."  
>"Fufufufu...The stage is set...The actors are in place...Now let the show begin! 'Part I, First Act: Stormy Seas and Raging Lighting!' "<br>Ahahahaha!"


	3. Chapter 2: A Procrastinator

**Chapter 2: A Procrastinator  
><strong>_"What a pitiful boy, see him walking all alone."_

The sound of the waves drifted through her ears. Her vision was blurred. She tried to move her head. She couldn't. She couldn't move at all. Not a hand, nothing. "...Where...Where am I? Can't...Sleepy...Drifting off...Help me...Partn-..."

A Pokemon opened his eyes. He groggily looked down at his chest, then at the sky. Realising it was almost dusk, he suddenly became alert. "...Oh, no way! I fell asleep here, in the _rain_?" The Pokemon quickly ran over to a small pond in a far corner of his home, and peered in. The flame on his back was still burning fiercely, thank goodness. He straightened up and breathed in. _ Yes, today's the day I'm gonna do it, _he thought. _Today's the day I'm going to join the guild_. He gathered the few possessions he had and stuffed them into a worn out duffel bag, walked to the entrance, and put his left foot on the steps. _Sun, Sea, Clouds, wish me luck_. He looked around, saying goodbye to all that he'd known for the past few years. Then he remembered. There was one thing he'd almost forgotten. He ran to a bush in the corner of his little cave and fished out an engraved piece of stone about the size of his palm, tucking it safely into the bottom of his bag. Looking back out the window one last time, he took a deep breath, and set off.

A Pokemon paced back and forth, nervously. He'd been lingering outside the Guild entrance for at least an hour already. It was a really stupid thing to do – and he knew that. It was just too hard. He thought it was similar to something he'd heard about, the Caterpie's Dilemma, in which a Croagunk asked a Caterpie how it managed to move all its legs and – no, he couldn't get distracted. He slapped himself in the snout and took a deep breath. He'd been doing that a lot lately. Maybe he should take some kind of -  
>No! He had to concentrate. He slapped himself again. He couldn't, he <em>refused<em> to let himself be paralysed by this any longer. He was going to step forward, they'd figure out what kind of Pokemon he was, they'd tell him to go down and then everything would be just dandy. It'd be easy.  
>He took another deep breath and hesitantly stepped onto the grill.<br>"POKEMON DETECTED! POKEMON DETECTED!"  
>"Whose footprint? Whose footprint?"<br>The Pokemon shrieked and jumped backwards, dashing towards the steps.

"Huh. The dude ran off."  
>"Did you see what type of Pokemon it was?"<br>"I'm sorry, not enough time. You know, I swear I've seen that footprint lots of times before. It's probably a coincidence though."

"...I guess I can't work up the courage to go in, after all..." the Pokemon murmured softly.  
>He knew he'd told himself that this was the day, but in the end...<br>Ruffling around in his bag, he took out the rock and held it up to sky.  
>"I thought my treasure would help me, but..."<br>He'd thought that this rock, his treasure, his own little piece of the world, would ignite the courage in him to go forward, but nevertheless he ran away.  
>"I'm such a coward."<br>He put it back in his bag with a sigh. How discouraging. Dusting off his bag, he stood up, and he walked away.

"Hey, Zubat."  
>"Yeah, what, Koffing?"<br>"That little wimp pacin' around... he had somethin' good, right?"  
>"Yeah, he had somethin', that's fo'sure. Looked like some kinda treasure."<br>"So then", Koffing said, turning to Zubat, "We goin' after it?"  
>"We are."<p> 


End file.
